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The WBS Pens hadn’t played a really bad game in quite a while, and they made up for lost time tonight.

They made a boatload of mistakes and Bobby Butler was there to make them pay for most of them, posting four goals and an assist in Albany’s 6-3 victory.

It was 1-1 after the first period when the wheels fell off. The Penguins turned a couple of pucks over and Albany scored on its first two shots of the second. Brian Dumoulin made it 3-2 a few minutes later, but when Butler completed his hat trick with a shorthanded breakaway goal at about the 8-minute mark, the Penguins were in big trouble.

Riley Holzapfel had a goal and an assist and Beau Bennett added two assists. Paul Thompson somehow managed to be a plus-3. Beyond that, some ugly stats for the Penguins.

The top line of Eric Tangradi (-4), Trevor Smith (-3) and Phil Dupuis (-3) combined for a minus-10. For a while there, everything Joe Morrow touched went awry. He finished with a minus-4. You wouldn’t describe any of Albany’s goals as soft, but four goals on 10 shots is four goals on 10 shots, and that’s what Brad Thiessen gave up in the first half of the game.

Bunch of fights in the third period — two for Dominik Uher and one each for Bobby Farnham, Alex Grant, Philip Samuelsson and Warren Peters. Nothing serious. Just looked like a little bit of frustration.

I’ve got the day off tomorrow, so check back for the next blog update Friday. In the meantime, check out our lovely and talented correspondent’s game story from tonight’s game in tomorrow’s paper. Until then …

The injury update from coach John Hynes after practice today was vague but generally positive.

Simon Despres and Jeff Zatkoff did not practice. Brian Strait did. All three are day to day with undisclosed injuries.

Why this is positive: The shorter a player is expected to be out, the less information Hynes usually divulges about the injury. That’s just a rule of thumb he generally follows. If someone is going to have surgery and miss months, Hynes will usually give some details. If a guy is going to miss a week with a sore shoulder or something, he just says he’s day to day and leaves it at that.

As long as there’s no official injury disclosure policy handed down from the NHL level, it will be to the discretion of each coach to decide how to talk about injuries. That’s how Hynes does it, like it or not.

Hynes added that Despres could possibly play as soon as this weekend, and that Zatkoff needs a few days to rest and will be re-evaluated Thursday.

With Zatkoff out, the Penguins called up Ryan Zapolski from South Carolina of the ECHL. I don’t expect he’ll be pressed into action, but if he is, he’s definitely qualified to play in the AHL. He’s an undrafted 26-year-old out of Mercyhurst who’s bounced around to five ECHL teams in his two pro seasons, but he’s been very good every stop of the way. Career ECHL numbers: 18-8-1, 2.00 GAA, .931 save percentage. He’s won his last six starts with South Carolina.

Zapolski is from Erie. If he gets into a game, he will be the ninth Pennsylvania native to play for the Penguins. Who are the other eight? I put the list in the comments in case you want to guess.

With Despres and Strait banged up, I think the biggest beneficiary as far as ice time goes will be Joe Morrow. More on that in tomorrow’s paper.

Morrow sat out three games as a healthy scratch from Nov. 25-Dec. 1. In the last few weeks, he’s been do a lot of individual work with Hynes, Alain Nasreddine and Todd Reirden on some aspects of his game in the defensive zone. He got back in the lineup last weekend and had an assist and a plus-1 rating in each of the two games. Hynes said it was his best weekend so far.

He’s paired with Robert Bortuzzo, which means he’ll get plenty of ice time five-on-five. With Despres out, some special teams time will open up too. It’s a pretty big week for Morrow.

When a goalie who is in the top 10 in the AHL in wins, shutouts, goals-against average and save percentage leaves the ice during practice with the trainer and the strength and conditioning coach, that can’t be good news.

That’s really the only news at this point, though. Jeff Zatkoff left the ice a little less than a half-hour into practice this morning at Coal Street. He walked off on his own, maybe a little gingerly but not in obvious distress. I didn’t see the particular shot or play on which he was injured, and coach John Hynes said he didn’t yet have an update from trainer Patrick Steidle.

Here’s Hynes’ direct quote, just for the record: “I don’t have any idea yet. I didn’t even know he went off until I noticed they changed the drill. I haven’t talked to Pat at all about it.”

Looking ahead, if Zatkoff is indeed out, the Penguins have eight games in the next 20 days, which is a pretty busy schedule, but this weekend — Friday home vs. Binghamton and Saturday at Syracuse — is the only set of games on back-to-back nights. Brad Thiessen, therefore, should be fine handling the load.

Thiessen’s had an interesting season so far. He’s had between five and 14 days off between his six starts, which can’t be easy for a goalie used to starting most nights. He’s been in close games almost every start too. He’s 3-2-1, and two of his wins came in a shootout and the other in overtime.

Overall, his numbers aren’t as good as Zatkoff’s (3-2-1, 3.17, .889 vs. 10-6, 2.00, .922) which puts him in an unusual position. He’s a former AHL goalie of the year playing with something to prove. Should be interesting to watch if Zatkoff’s out.

A quote from Thiessen today: “It’s a situation where I’ve done it in the past. I’m ready. I’ve worked hard and put myself in the position where if I do get to play games, I’m not going to feel out of place or uncomfortable. I’m ready to contribute if that’s the case.”

Meanwhile, Shawn Rine in Wheeling reported that Patrick Killeen didn’t practice today because he was at the doctor’s getting his hand looked at. That leaves Scott Darling in Wheeling.

Darling has been playing well, going 3-1-1 in his last five starts, and he’s a big guy at 6-6, 230, but I don’t think he’d be the call-up if Killeen is out. Not only would it leave Wheeling in a bind, but also while Darling is playing on an ECHL contract, as far as I can tell, which means he could be called up by any AHL team, he appears to be a Hamilton guy, having already played a game for the Bulldogs this season.

So that means the Penguins could be on a goalie search today and tomorrow. I asked Hynes if he was dreading it. “Not worried. It’s part of what we do,” he said.

Reader Derrick Graffius had an interesting thought on Twitter. He noted that Brent Johnson has been working out in Pittsburgh with the locked-out Penguins and wondered if he’d be interested. Just for fun, I looked up the names of some goalies in the same situation as Johnson — locked out, an NHL free agent and not playing in Europe — and came up with Ty Conklin and Dwayne Roloson as well. Let the baseless speculation begin.

All this stuff made me wonder who the Penguins’ emergency goalie would be if it ever came to that. Hynes said he didn’t have anyone in mind, but theorized Steve MacIntyre might be a good choice because he’s big. Trevor Smith said he’s heard Dylan Reese express interest in putting on the pads before, so maybe he’s the guy.

Look, I realize it’s never going to happen and I might be the only person who even thinks about such things, but hey, that’s probably what the Erie Otters figured last season too.

The goalie situation made me forget to ask for an update on Simon Despres, who didn’t practice today. Sorry about that. I’ll ask tomorrow. Beau Bennett, who crashed into the boards when he was tripped on his shootout attempt Saturday, practiced today and seemed fine. Brian Strait (day to day, undisclosed injury) also practiced without apparent restrictions.

Two last notes before I go:

First, I’ll be saying a few words at the booster club meeting tonight, so if you’re a member and you want to hear me talk about stuff like emergency goalies and defensemen winning faceoffs, by all means, stop by.

Second, I figured out how to approve comments using the new blog comment system, so if you’ve written something but didn’t see it posted, that’s why. My bad. Should be OK now.

There were all sorts of unusual events in Portland’s 4-3 win over the WBS Penguins on Saturday night.

The teams skated three-on-three and five-on-four for a while in overtime. There were four fights in the second period. Portland pulled its starting goalie in favor of a rookie making his AHL debut and he played awesome. The Penguins blew a 3-0 lead. Bunch of stuff. The length of this blog post is evidence of that.

But what the game eventually boiled down to was a one-on-one matchup of former teammates.

Goalie Brad Thiessen robbed Chris Conner with a miraculous glove save with 1:50 left in regulation, then Conner returned the favor in the shootout, avoiding a poke-check and slipping a puck between Thiessen’s pads for the decisive score in the fourth round.

Going back to the beginning, Portland had a goalie problem coming into the game. No. 1 Chad Johnson is hurt and No. 2 Mark Visentin gave up a six-spot to Bingo the night before.

Visentin lasted only about six minutes tonight, giving up goals to Trevor Smith and Jayson Megna on the Penguins’ first five shots.

Smith’s goal couldn’t really be pinned on Visentin. Phil Dupuis skated around the net and set Smith up at the top of the crease. Megna’s could. It came on a juicy rebound after a routine Joe Morrow shot from the left point.

Mike Lee, a rookie from St. Cloud State making his AHL debut, came in and fared much better.

The goal he gave up to make it 3-0 in the second period wasn’t his fault. A forechecking Beau Bennett directed a Mathieu Brodeur clearing attempt with his skate right out to Riley Holzapfel in the high slot for a one-timer. Holzapfel and Bennett play really well together.

Portland rallied from there. Alexandre Bolduc won a battle on the right half-wall and set up Chris Brown for a one-timer in the slot to
make it 3-1 in the second period. Dylan Reese sent a backhand clear from the left-wing corner right onto the tape of Jordan Martinook at the left hash marks for another one-time goal early in the third.

Then superstar-in-the-making Oliver Ekman-Larsson went coast to coast to tie the score on the power play at 8:30. He pulled up at the top of the right faceoff circle and beat Thiessen to the blocker side. It might have been the kind of goal you’d consider a goaltending error, but since Ekman-Larsson is so good, Thiessen should probably get the benefit of the doubt here, especially after the save he made on Conner with 1:50 left.

There were four fights in the second period. If you were scoring them, you’d probably say the Penguins won three, but the end result was the game got more scrambly and the Pirates kept chipping away. As entertaining as that period was — and it was very entertaining — this might have been a case where it would have been best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Anyway, I’ll run down the scraps for those of you interested in such things.

Then, Alex Grant fought Darian Dziurzynski. Grant, uncharacteristically dusted off his hands on his way to the penalty box. It’s wasn’t Grant’s first run-in with the Dziurzynski family. Binghamton forward David injured him in a boarding incident in a rookie tournament game two preseasons ago.

Third was your heavyweight main event, Steve MacIntyre and Joel Rechlicz. Surprisingly, they never tangled last season when Rechlicz was with Hershey, but they did tonight. MacIntyre buried him quickly with a couple of hard rights. Rechlicz tried to fight MacIntyre again when he was freed from the penalty box, but it was during a stoppage in play and MacIntyre just kept skating to the bench while Rechlicz threw down his gloves. Rechlicz got a misconduct for his trouble.

MacIntyre was the between-periods on-ice interview after that, and he was complimentary of Rechlicz. Said he is a tough guy, every dog has his day and he’s just trying to stay humble. There’s obviously respect between Rechlicz and MacIntyre.

It’s worth wondering at this point if there’s anyone in the entire AHL who could stand in and give MacIntyre a competitive bout. If Rechlicz couldn’t, who can? Rochester’s Nick Tarnasky, maybe? Lake Erie’s Patrick Bordleau?

Anyway, the fourth fight was Eric Tangradi and Alexandre Bolduc, a good matchup of top-line forwards. They tangled earlier in the period and got matching minors, then fought immediately after leaving the penalty box. Bolduc seemed surprised by Tangradi’s first few punches.

Why all the fights? Portland played a nasty game in Binghamton the night before, a game that included several goalie interference incidents. When Tangradi accidentally plowed Lee early in the second period, it might have hit a nerve. Plus, the Penguins were a little ornery coming off a loss to Hershey.

Bottom line, it’s a bad loss for the Penguins. They had a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, and things got disjointed from there. A couple of turnovers and a 0-for-7 power-play performance by the Penguins and a great game by Lee were the difference.

The Penguins were 13-3 in their last 16 games before this weekend. You have to expect some evening out after a run like that, and if this is what the evening out looks like — 13-3-1-1 in their last 18 — the Penguins should count their blessings because it isn’t terrible.

A little bit of an update on Simon Despres, who was injured last night. Coach John Hynes said he’s day to day with an undisclosed injury and will be re-evaluated Monday. Beau Bennett crashed hard into the boards after being accidentally tripped by Lee at the end of his shootout attempt. I’ll try to follow up on him next week as well.

Stat of the night: Since Oct. 22, the WBS Penguins are 1-4 against Hershey and 12-0 against the rest of the league.

The goal that gave Hershey a 5-4 win in overtime tonight provides a perfect snapshot of how the season series has gone. Kevin Marshall, he of the seven goals in 243 pro games, has the puck on a slow-developing two-on-one, bearing down on Jeff Zatkoff, the reigning AHL goalie of the month.

A mismatch, right? Not so fast.

Marshall shoves in his own rebound and the Bears win.

In fairness to Hershey, this was not one of those games where the better team lost because of a bounce in overtime. It was pretty even throughout. The Penguins probably had a territorial advantage, but the Bears did a better job of generating dangerous chances and finishing them.

Jon DiSalvatore had a great game for Hershey. He scored on a one-timer from the slot and won a puck battle in the corner to set up a Tomas Kundratek goal about seven minutes apart in the second period to give Hershey a 4-3 lead.

Eric Tangradi had a nice game for the Penguins with a goal and an assist. He muscled a bad-angle shot past Dany Sabourin early in the third period to tie the score 4-4. Neither goalie had a game to remember.

Simon Despres left the game with an undisclosed injury in the second period. Coach John Hynes said he hadn’t yet talked to the doctors to get an update on his condition after the game. Hynes also said Brian Strait is day to day with an undisclosed injury. For the first time, the Penguins’ defensive depth is being tested.

– Keven Veilleux will sit out the next two weeks as he continues to recover from knee surgery that sidelined him all of last season. “It’s nothing serious. We had to rest him a little bit to give him a chance to be back over Christmas. Not a new injury,” coach John Hynes said.

– The Penguins close out December with a stretch of eight games in 20 days starting on the 12th. This week, then, was their last chance for a while to have a long stretch of practices between games. “One of the things we used this week for was to really re-energize mentally,” Hynes said. “We had a couple of days off, but we had very good practices. The practices were intense. They were hard. The players did a good job preparing themselves to be game ready. A lot of the positive energy we got from last week has carried over because they’re refreshed and re-energized and ready for some games.”

– Hynes did offer one note of caution that I found interesting. Hershey is playing Norfolk tonight at a sold-out Verizon Center. Hynes said the Penguins have to make sure they’re on top of things early in the game tomorrow night because the Bears will probably be sharper than they are.

– Beau Bennett is four games into the WBS-Hershey rivalry. Here’s his take on it so far: “There’s a lot of bad blood between us. It’s fun to play those games. At Denver, you play CC (Colorado College) four times a year. At Penticton, you play Vernon 10 times a year. It’s fun, those rivalries. By the end of the year, you hate seeing each other.”

– @Ian: Here are some stats. Last year, 70 players listed as wingers scored at least 20 goals in the NHL. Seventy percent of them played at least one game in the AHL. Forty-four percent played more than 20 games in the AHL. Twenty-four percent played more than 100 games in the AHL. Two — Michael Ryder and Alex Burrows — played in the ECHL. Four — Erik Cole, Martin St. Louis, Ray Whitney and Petr Sykora — were old enough to have played in the IHL.

For the first time in a long time, there appears to be legitimate optimism that an NHL labor deal could get done in time to save the season.

If you’re like me, that made you start thinking about how the roster battles that usually play out over the course of September will be compressed into a short time span once an agreement is signed. Let’s take a look at some hot spots. There aren’t as many as you might think.

First, I tried to sketch out a complete depth chart, including guys on AHL contracts. Please let me know in the comments if I’ve forgotten anyone.

LW

C

RW

KUNITZ

CROSBY

DUPUIS

COOKE

MALKIN

NEAL

JEFFREY

SUTTER

KENNEDY

GLASS

VITALE

ADAMS

TANGRADI

DUPUIS

BENNETT

MACINTYRE

SMITH

FERRIERO

GIBBONS

HOLZAPFEL

THOMPSON

FARNHAM

PETERS

KUHNHACKL

UHER

MEGNA

VEILLEUX

ZUREVINSKI

SILL

PAYERL

MANDERSON

CHUPP

LD

RD

G

ORPIK

LETANG

FLEURY

MARTIN

NISKANEN

VOKOUN

DESPRES

ENGELLAND

ZATKOFF

STRAIT

LOVEJOY

THIESSEN

DUMOULIN

BORTUZZO

KILLEEN

MORROW

REESE

SAMUELSSON

GRANT

MORMINA

SNEEP

MCNEILL

– The first thing that pops out is that there could be a battle royal for the second-line LW job with Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. Candidates would include Matt Cooke, Dustin Jeffrey, Eric Tangradi and perhaps Beau Bennett, among others.

– The next hot spot is at the bottom of Pittsburgh’s depth chart on defense. You’ve got six guys on one-way NHL deals — Orpik, Martin, Letang, Niskanen, Engelland and Lovejoy. Then you’ve got two guys who would have to clear waivers under the old CBA — Strait and Bortuzzo. Then you’ve got Despres, who looks very good in the AHL this season and last year, played even better in the NHL than he did in the minors. Add in Dylan Reese, who had played 74 NHL games the last three seasons and has been an invaluable piece of the puzzle so far in Wilkes-Barre, and you’re at 10 guys. Something will have to give there. At least one or two guys will have to go on waivers or be traded.

Other than that, the lineup doesn’t look particularly volatile. A training camp of a week or two should be plenty to hash any issues out, should the optimism continue in these labor talks.

One note from today’s practice: Tom Kuhnhackl is going to be out for “a while,” according to coach John Hynes, with an upper-body injury. It’s not related to any injuries he had in juniors, which is a small silver lining. He played his best game of the year two Sundays ago in Atlantic City, the suffered the injury Saturday night.

One thing to look for in tomorrow’s paper: A look at John Hynes, who with his next victory will become the franchise’s all-time winningest coach.

One thing to look for in Friday’s paper: I think I’m going to unveil a new feature, a weekly reporter’s notebook, that will run on Fridays. It will give me a chance to hit on some different topics and be a little more opinionated than I would in a regular news story. This week, it will feature a look at Trevor Smith getting his Calder Cup championship ring.

One thing to look for in Sunday’s paper: I’m planning to take a look at the development of top-six NHL forwards in the AHL. Why is it so hard to do? Could Bennett and Tangradi fit into the category?

The Penguins did the old Sunday off, practice Monday, Tuesday off schedule this week, and because of how that coincides with my schedule, the next full-fledged blog update won’t be until Wednesday. But I have some notes in the meantime.

– Jeff Zatkoff won AHL goalie of the month honors today. He went 8-1 with a 1.21 goals-against average, .955 save percentage and three shutouts and won his last five starts in November. That’s impressive. Abbotsford’s Barry Brust had a great month too. He went 5-0, stopped 121-of-124 shots (.976 and broke Johnny Bower’s 55-year old AHL record for longest shutout streak. I’m sure he’ll win the Milestone of the Month award or whatever that thing is called if they still have it.

– Have you ever wondered what kind of form Zach Sill has as a bowler? Me neither, but it’s for a good cause. Here’s a picture from Sunday’s Pens and Pins charity bowling tournament.

– Mark Divver of the Providence Journal, who covered him in college at Brown, reports that Bobby Farnham has earned an AHL contract with the Penguins. He had been playing on a PTO. I can’t think of a player who deserves it more. Farnham has been a very effective energy guy in the last month or so.

– Albany signed Stephen Gionta and Manchester signed Bryan Rodney to AHL deals today. This means
A) the lockout is nearing its conclusion and these guys want to get in shape
B) the season’s going to be canceled and these guys are looking for a place to play
C) None of the above. It’s a coincidence.

Zach Sill said he thought this was a statement weekend for the WBS Penguins and I completely agree. They faced two division-leading teams on back-to-back nights and generally outplayed both, allowing a grand total of 42 shots, including just 16 to St. John’s tonight.

Dylan Reese and Riley Holzapfel had a goal and an assist apiece as the Penguins beat the Ice Caps 5-3.

The Penguins were completely dominant early. Reese said it might have been the best period he’s ever seen an AHL team play. They took the game’s first 12 shots and were up 2-0 in the first four minutes on goals by Simon Despres and Warren Peters.

The Penguins kept up their territorial advantage throughout much of the rest of the game, but this was one of those nights where WBS was playing its system really well but the scoreboard didn’t necessarily reflect it. That happens against good teams. Jason Jaffray had a goal and an assist and the game was tied 2-2 heading into the last minute of the second period.

Reese then scored a huge goal on the power play with 19.8 seconds left before intermission. His shot from the right point hit the stick of a St. John’s defenseman and slowly made its way inside the far post. Benn Ferriero scored an impressive goal early in the second, one-timing a deflected Riley Holzapfel centering pass in out of midair, and the Penguins had a two-goal lead.

They needed it too. Spencer Machacek scored with 6:13 left to make it 4-3 and Holzapfel was called for tripping with 3:10 to play. The Penguins allowed just one shot on the power play and Holzapfel picked up a puck the moment he stepped out of the penalty box and scored an empty netter. The Penguins have won five in a row and are 13-3 since starting the season 0-4.

Some notes:

– John Hynes tied Glenn Patrick for first place on the team’s all-time coaching wins list (115). Hynes hit the mark in 64 fewer games. “If you look at the resumes of the coaches to come through here, to be in that category is quite an honor,” Hynes said.

– Sill looked great in his return after missing 17 games with an upper-body injury. He hit on the forecheck and killed penalties and generally played an outstanding energy game.

– Sill on beating the team that knocked the Penguins out of the playoffs last year: “It feels good,” he said. “You don’t forget. You never forget that stuff.”

– Tom Kuhnhackl left the game with what appeared to be an upper-body injury. I’ll follow up on that in practice this week.

– Beau Bennett had an assist and has at least one point in eight of his last nine games. Looked good on the power play. Simon Despres had a good game too. He was all over the place, in a good way.

– The Penguins had a chance to tie for the top spot in the Eastern Conference tonight, but Syracuse scored three goals in the third period and beat Connecticut 4-3 in overtime. The Penguins are tied with Springfield for the second spot in the conference with 26 points.

– Tomorrow’s an off day and Monday I’m on the desk, so look for the next blog update Tuesday. Until then …

Ever wondered who would win a fight between former WBS Penguins defensemen David Koci and Boris Valabik? Probably not, but here’s the video anyway.

It was this close to being an all-ex-WBS news story, as the player Koci hit was Robert Petrovicky. He never played for the Penguins, but his brother Ronald did, four games in 06-07. Koci got a six-game suspension for the hit.

A winner of first-place honors in the blogging category of the 2012 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards, Penguins Insider was created to give local hockey fans an interactive, in-depth way to follow the team they so passionately support. The blog's author, beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, has been covering the team since its inception in 1999. Contact him at jbombulie@aol.com

Visit the WBS Penguins page at citizensvoice.com for Penguins stories, photos and more.